Happiness is sometimes so easy to find. Like this morning I am very very happy because I had a chance to wake up early and cook lunch for my husband so he can take it to work. I did it yesterday and he came home beaming with happiness and said that he loved his home made meat patties with buckwheat porridge. He thought about me and missed me. So this morning I woke up extra early again to fix him something special. I cooked some catfish that we caught on a fishing trip when my dad was visiting me. Seeing this fix brought so many happy memories of us spending time together. It was his first trip to the USA, he finally had a chance to see in person how well we live and he found his own peace of mind and told me that I live in Heaven. I do :-) My mom told me the same thing when he was leaving the USA after coming here for my graduation. He cried as he lost me to this county for good, we would never spend as much time as if we lived in the same city but he was happy for me and was glad to see me succeed and make my dreams come true. She cried and told me: " This is heaven, don't ever leave". When it gets tough and I miss my family badly I think about those words and work extra hard to make money and fly them here to spend time with me. It's been all worse it even though it gets sad to be so far away. Well back to cooking :-) For the side I made millet porridge that was my grandmother's favorite. I still remember her in the kitchen smiling and telling us fairy tales when she cooked for us. It feels like I can see her face now and hear her loving voice. These were the golden days of my childhood when we spent 3 month with our grandparents in the Ukraine with my brother. We used to help my grandmother pick various herbs and flowers for her special teas that she sold to people in the village. As a tiny but strong girl I would climb the top of lime-trees and pick the biggest flowers that had the most sun and aroma. I climbed so hight that  I could feel the tree moving with the gusts of wind, I could probably kill myself if I ever fell off the tree but I did not think about the danger of what I was doing and I had no fear. Grandma did not know that I climbed to high, nobody could see me out there and enjoyed being on the very top and looking down at people passing by. Now I realize that I always reached out for the very top no matter what I did and that helped me get the best of everything.  On top of the tree I could observe everything from a bird sight view. It was so amazing. It was so easy to be happy and smile. Why do we get so hard headed and hard hearted when we grow up? We want more and more, we are afraid to show our true emotions and feeling, we hide in the shells that we create for ourselves like turtles do. It hurts to be open and many choose to live in the past and with their fears. I've been hurt too many times but for some reason I always recover and come back as a happy self. If somebody walks all over me, I will die but come back as a flower comes back out in spring. I have deep roots and it is such a great feeling to discover them and see where I come from. When I come to the Ukraine I will definitely climb a tree and let other people think I am crazy I will just do it. I may not climb to the very top as I am not so tiny anymore I can still climb and be pretty high. There were people that always told me to grow up and quit being such a dreamer. I am glad that I never listened to them and followed my heart's desires. Now they say that I just got lucky and I am an exception from the rules. Well my theory is that we can all be lucky and exceptional if we just stay true to ourselves and live following our dreams not our fear. We can choose to be afraid and surrender to the boredom and routine of life or we can choose to be dare, go against the stream and follow our dreams. Life does not have to be gray. We do not have to do something because it is our duty. We can choose to do it with love and put our heart in it and it can be as simple as cooking a meal. I was so happy to cook today because I thought about all the love that my grandmother and my mother gave me when they cooked for me. I can never thank them enough for waking up and sacrificing their time to please me. I did not go to school with money for Subway sandwich, I always had something special home made for me. Now I start realizing how important it is and why I am so happy. In the future I will also give my love to kids and family not only in hugs and kisses but in the fact of making them food, ironing their close, showing that I love them and I care about them. I can afford to buy precooked food and go to dry cleaning and let them wash our clothe but I will choose to do it on my own and do it with love. This is the secret to true happiness that I discovered this morning. We can find a million excuses and say that we are too busy to cook and do laundry and allow ourselves be sucked up by the TV or computer. BUT .... My grandparents and my parents did not have the time  for TV or PC and instead they had time for me and for loving me and this made me such a happy person. I will do the same for my loved ones . It made me happy to do it this morning!!! I am very very happy and I am sure he will be happy too around lunch time when he thinks about me. Love is contagious. I just gave him a hug and a kiss that he will not forget and that he will miss :-) Sounds like a poem. Ok I am out of here :-) Have a great day, honey!!! I love you!!!